Hi Reader,
Last week we talked about treating AI like a sparring partner instead of a vending machine, asking it to push back rather than just agree with you. This week I want to take that same idea somewhere more personal: your decisions. If AI can help challenge your thinking on a prompt, it can also help you think through a decision that matters to your business.
THE OPENING SIGNAL
One of the most draining parts of running a business is having to make important decisions without a real sounding board. You rarely have perfect information, and the decision still has to get made.
A few clients have asked me some version of the same question lately: which AI platform should I choose for my business?
At first, it sounds like a technology decision. But every time, the conversation ends up somewhere bigger. We end up talking about how the team actually works together. Where information lives. What systems are already in place. Whether the goal is to add another tool, or simplify what's already there.
By the end, the question has shifted. It's not "which AI platform should I choose" anymore. It's "what kind of business am I trying to build, and which platform actually supports that." That's a much better question, because it starts with the business, not the tool.
I've noticed this happens more often than people realize. Business owners come to a decision believing they're trying to answer one question, when the real question is something else entirely.
WHAT ACTUALLY MATTERS
The AI platform was only one piece of a much larger business decision. That's usually how it goes.
AI is useful here because it can help clarify the real question, compare the tradeoffs, and identify what information you're still missing. It can also surface assumptions you didn't know you were making.
What AI cannot do is take responsibility for the decision. The judgment is still yours.
There's a catch worth naming, though. One reader put it well: it's easy to hand AI a decision and say "tell me what to do," but much harder to pull back and ask it to challenge your assumptions. Left on its own, AI tends to agree with you.
That's not helpful when the whole point is to see what you might be missing.
One of the loneliest parts of running a business is that many of your biggest decisions don't come with a sounding board. That's exactly why this matters. Not because AI knows more than you do. Because it gives you somewhere to think out loud, as long as you ask it to push back instead of just agree.
The best decisions aren't made with perfect information. They're made with enough clarity to move forward confidently.
That same approach becomes even more useful when you're facing a real business decision. Don't just ask AI to challenge the idea. Ask it to challenge how you're evaluating the decision.
ONE SMALL MOVE
Use this prompt on a real decision you're actually facing:
"I am deciding between [Option A] and [Option B]. Help me compare the tradeoffs, identify risks, and clarify what information I still need. Do not make the decision for me."
Notice what comes back. It's not an answer. It's a clearer picture of what you already know and where you're still guessing.
WORTH PAYING ATTENTION TO
This isn't just something I say to clients. I recently came across a piece from the Forbes Business Council that put words to a pattern I've been seeing for a while.
The author draws a clear boundary around what it means to use AI as a thinking partner: use it to clarify, question, structure, and prepare, not to decide.
One idea stayed with me: AI can help you clarify and structure a decision, but responsibility and judgment still belong to you. That matters because a confident answer can feel like a good one. They aren't always the same thing.
Most conversations about AI focus on speed, on getting things written or answered faster. Far fewer focus on what it actually means to think more clearly. That's the shift worth paying attention to.
Next time AI hands you a confident answer, pause before you act on it. Ask yourself whether it sounds right because it is right for your situation, or just because that's what confident answers sound like
Don't ask AI to make your decisions. Ask it to help you make better ones.
That's the whole shift. AI isn't the hero of this story, it's the sounding board. The thinking is still yours.
Reply and tell me: what is one decision you are currently sitting with? I read every reply, and sometimes the decision itself becomes the thing we dig into next.
Talk soon,
Lucy
P.S. Some decisions need more than a prompt. If you’re working through a bigger business decision and would value an outside perspective, that’s exactly what my strategy sessions are designed for.